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10 very cool examples of experiential marketing

The premise is to create a closer bond between the consumer and the brand by immersing them in a fun and memorable experience.

If a brand event stirs genuine positive emotions within people then they are more likely to associate those emotions with that brand, which is more effective than just showing them a Facebook ad or something.

Occasionally the line blurs between experiential marketing and a straightforward PR stunt, but we’re not here to waste time quibbling over definitions.

Here are 10 great examples of experiential marketing. We’ve included relevant success metrics where they are available, but others I’ve included just because they’re pretty darn cool…

Using the hashtag #ghostbusterswaterloo, the stunt was a hit on Instagram, with lots of people taking advantage of a unique photo opportunity.

2. Coca Cola’s 2018 World Cup AR experience

Coca Cola celebrated the start of the 2018 Fifa World Cup with an augmented reality experience outside of Zurich train station.

Participants could show off their skills on screen with Switzerland’s Xherdan Shaqiri, take a photo with The Powercube (one of his many nicknames) and enter a competition to win the official match ball of the Fifa World Cup.

An immersive experience using AR on a grand scale was a great way to engage true football fans and give them a memory tied to the Coca-Cola brand and the world’s biggest sporting event.

3. WaterAid’s Hope Lockers

WaterAid worked with Proximity and MediaMonks in 2016 to create its Hope Lockers.

As the video explains, screens within the lockers play a video when swimmers return to their locker – giving them information about the plight of those without clean water, and telling swimmers how many children died in the time they were swimming as a result of dirty water.

At the end of the message, the swimmer is asked whether they want their pound coin returned or whether they would like to donate it to the cause.

Swimmers’ attention has to be focused on the campaign to get their pound coin back, making this a captive moment. Of course, the lockers would probabaly not be profitable at scale but were used as a PR/experiential tool to drive awareness via word of mouth and press coverage.

Click to enlarge.

4. Doc McStuffin’s check up clinic

Doc McStuffin is a Disney Channel TV show about a six-year-old girl who heals toys out of her imaginary clinic.

If you’ve not heard of it, I’ll get my seven-year-old niece to sing you the theme tune.

This ticketed event allows Lush fans to get up close and personal with the brand. Nikki Gilliland reported in 2017 on visual and voice search, alongside Instagrammable installations.

Lush stores of course already give an immersive experience with their staff giving demonstrations of products. The Showcase takes this personable approach further by getting super fans involved on a grand scale.

7. Samsung Studios – 2012 Olympics

As part of its sponsorship of the 2012 Olympics, Samsung created brand experiences at various destinations around London, including St Pancras International, Stratford International, Westfield Stratford, N1 Centre Islington, Canary Wharf, One New Change, Broadgate and Heathrow T1 departures lounge.

Running from mid July to early September the ‘Samsung Studios’ focused on demonstrating the new Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note.

Visitors could play with Samsung’s Olympic Games app or have their photo taken on the Galaxy S3 and instantly turned into a personalised badge.

There was also a competition to win an S3 and an around-the-world trip if people could be bothered to return every day to collect special pin badges.

Notably, no products were sold at the Studios.

Analysis showed that half the visitors spent between six and ten minutes at the Samsung Studio, while the average interaction was 7 minutes 45 seconds.

For those in the market for a new phone, the average interaction was 8 minutes 15 seconds.

Among various other results, nine of out ten visitors claimed to be more likely to consider a Samsung phone as a result of having interacted with the Samsung Studio.

And just over a third (35%) said they are much more likely to consider Samsung.

8. Adidas and Derrick Rose’s Jump Store

Pop-up stores aren’t a new concept, but Adidas’ 2013 ‘D Rose Jump Store’ in London was a cut above the rest.

Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose was in attendance to challenge fans to win a pair of free trainers by taking them off a shelf that happened to be 10 foot in the air.

It’s a relevant, exciting and memorable experience for all the kids who took part.

9. Mountain Dew’s UK ‘guerrilla tour’

I’m not even sure if you can buy Mountain Dew in the UK anymore, so maybe they should carry out more of these kind of stunts.

To drive awareness and encourage people to try Mountain Dew Energy the marketing team designed a 43-day ‘guerrilla tour’ in 2012 that targeted consumers at festivals, transport hubs and in city centres.

A team of 15 brand ambassadors drove around the UK in a Mountain Dew truck, hosting various competitions and giveaways. They also dished out free samples.

This video explains more:

The campaign achieved an ROI of £1.85 for every £1 spent, and 55% of people targeted by the event went on to purchase a Mountain Dew, more than a third of whom were new purchasers.

10. IKEA’s store sleepover

In the UK Ikea hosted a sleepover in 2011 in its Essex store in response to a Facebook fan group called ‘I wanna have a sleepover in Ikea’.

Almost 100,000 people joined the group and Ikea gave 100 of them the chance to actually spend a night in the warehouse.

The winners were given manicures and massages, and had a bedtime story read to them by a reality TV star.

There was also a sleep expert on-hand to give people advice and potentially help them choose a new mattress.

Recommended

Snow Fall is a beautiful, interactive and immersive multimedia experience about the avalanche at Tunnel Creek in the US.

It was lovingly crafted by The New York Times in 2012 and was heralded as setting new standards in digital storytelling.

Seventeen months later, the publication’s internal innovation report was leaked. It points out that while projects such as Snow Fall are extremely popular, with more than 21m page views, they are not easily replicable.

The report provides insight and recommendations for how content can be combined with ecommerce as well as examples of what ecommerce practitioners are currently doing and the role they are setting for content marketing within the overall digital strategy.

Interviews were conducted with leading ecommerce professionals in B2B and B2C organisations, both UK and international. The aim of the interviews was to explore how leading brands are integrating content into ecommerce journeys and what the future strategy of the business looks like, with the output being qualitative data and indicative charts based on the responses of interviewees.

10 key questions were asked, including “who has ownership of your content?” “What tools do you use to help plan and deliver?” and “Do you produce content guidelines?”

These questions and more are answered in the report, but for now we’ll be looking at content marketing KPIs.